One evening back in 2000, I ran into an old friend that I went to high school with; as I was heading home from work. We exchanged greetings and began a conversation and she later handed me her business card inviting me over to a function that she goes to. Her business card read her name as a Marykay Beauty Consultant; at first I have never heard of Mary Kay and did not know anything about this business. I decided to take a chance and accepted her offer and we later went to a place leading me into a small room, where she later gave me a facial and makeover. At the end of my facial and makeover, women showed up in the room dressed in business-like suits, who were later identified as sales directors and their unit members. Towards the end of the meeting, I was called to join fellow guests where I felt awkward in front of a large group of people, there I introduced myself and was then asked by one of the sales directors, I would like to make some extra cash. At first, I declined but then later, I would have a change of heart and would give it a shot and sign the agreement and later place an inventory order.

At the time, I was working at a dead end job that paid me very little and offered no health benefits or 401k, in addition; I was in dire straits since I was in debt and needed the extra money to help get me out of debt. My only regret was, I did not do my homework by researching and asking enough questions about MK. From the beginning, I didn’t know what Multiple Level Marketing was and how it worked; and the fact that MK was one of them. After joining MK, I later was told that I was required to attend unit meetings once a week, and I complied; my first impression was that I only signed just to sell products, yet I was told that to make serious money, I had to recruit other people, which was not what I initially told when I was interviewed by my sales director. At first, I just kind of didn’t think much of it, and I continued to sell MK products to only those who used MK. Warm-chatting, or approaching strangers were something that I have refused to do.

During unit meetings, directors would instruct us about warm-chatting and approaching strangers and talk to them about MK, first off, I was not a person to approach complete strangers and offering them my business card, that was just not me. I would lie to directors when asked how many names that I have gotten from people, I would say seven; when in fact I never approached anyone. Late in 2003, I would later stop attending unit meetings and Sunday unit conference calls; it was the beginning of the end of working as a MK Consultant.

Do you have a memorable experience from your time in Mary Kay? If so, please tell us about it.

In 2003, at my second and last seminar, I have encountered pretentious people who started off as nice and later showed a different side of themselves. One person in particular, who started MK as a consultant in 2002 and debut as a sales director on that same year, started acting differently towards me. From one time she was nice and friendly to me, but after she became a sales director, she started acting as if her s…t does not stink. I heard that she was saying some negative stuff about me and from that point on, I never liked that woman again; there was something shaky about her character. Between 2006 thru 2007, I was ordering small inventory on and off, I would allow my status to go inactive for a while and then would place another small order. Reason was because I did not have a large customer base and it did not making any sense ordering large amount of inventory just to take up space. In 2008, I have stopped placing inventory and allow my status to terminate, no longer do I wish to be part of this MLM and no longer do I wish to be around phony and shaky people that I have encountered during my years as a consultant.

What are you doing now?

I am currently working at a financial company of 7 years and 10 months, my current job provides me what MK and my previous job; does not such as health care benefits, 401(k), dental, paid vacations, etc. I get a regular paycheck which Mk definitely does not provide me and no longer have to deal with being pressured into doing things that I cannot do.

Feel free to include any additional comments here:

If only if I knew if Mary Kay was a pyramid scheme, I would not have joined, my only regret was that I have never did any research and at the time I was vulnerable and did not know any better because I was in debt at the time and needed the extra money. If you wish to join MK, do so at your own risk and be sure to research and ask questions

Comments

No is isn’t. MK is not an evil company that makes do recruiting or anything. There are some Director that are more “pushy” than others. But that isn’t MK fault. I love my MK business, and no one tell me what to do.

No one “makes” you do recruiting, but it is STRONGLY encouraged. It is part of the “business” practices they preach. In order for the structure of the MLM to survive, you have to bring in new people. The company has to sell inventory to these new people.

The reason MOST Mary Kay Directors are pushy is because they have to be in order to survive, to maintain their quotas. There ARE quotas, whether they want to call them that or not. Directors have to bring in new people and this IS the “fault” of Mary Kay, the company, in the sense that that is the way the whole set up works. No sales, no directorship. And most of the “sales” that directors are making is in the form of signing new recruits and getting the new recruits to buy inventory.

I personally have not encountered any of the above. I have been under Mary Kay as a beauty consultant for two years and never felt pressured into anything. I joined Mary Kay so I could get the products at a discount. I would only sell to 3 of my family members and did it at a 30% discount. My director would touch base with me once in a while to see what I was doing with Mary Kay, and I was completely honest with her. I attended only one meeting and was never pressured to keep going. Recently I have decided to put myself out there and sell Mary Kay to others because of what the product has done for me. Anyway, I just want to say the experience is different for everyone. What works for some may not work for others.. Enjoy your day, everyone. 🙂

This sounds just like another person who ,has no motivation to work hard for to achieve any goals. In soo many years, that you “worked” and you have nothing positive for take from those experiences. Well maybe you never worked the way you were supposed to.

I left MK two years ago, after being in for 15 years. I left during director qualification (DIQ) when I saw how much lying/deceit was going on at the director level. Everything on this site is true! Directors are under tremendous pressure to encourage/brainwash their consultants to order large amounts b/c that’s how they get those “big” commission checks & keep their cars. Sadly, the cars are not “free” as they like to tout at guest events. The directors never tell you how often (very often) they make co-pays on those cars or how much of their own money they put in towards production to be able to keep that trophy on wheels. MK is a scam in every respect.